Embark Studios has tripled the number of daily Bird City time slots in ARC Raiders after players ripped into the event's original schedule. European players were hit hardest, with most of the available windows falling squarely during working hours. The change brings the daily count from three one-hour windows to nine, giving players across all regions a much better shot at actually experiencing the new content.
Bird City Now Runs 9 Times Per Day
The Bird City map modifier originally ran just three times daily, spaced every eight hours. After the update, that number jumped to nine one-hour windows spread across the day. Events now run roughly every other hour, meaning players in any given time zone should be able to find at least a few slots that work around a normal schedule.
Community manager Ossen confirmed the change on the official ARC Raiders Discord. "We just pushed [an] update enabling this week's schedule while also increasing the frequency of Bird City," Ossen wrote. "No download required but please restart your game to update. We will keep revising and try to find a schedule for all conditions so that all time zones get a chance to play."
The message came after a brief but confusing disruption the night before. All map conditions in ARC Raiders vanished for several hours, leaving players with no active modifiers across any map. Ossen attributed the outage to "an issue with the map conditions schedule," and the new Bird City rotation went live shortly after.
Here's the full updated rotation across all major time zones:
| Time Zone | Bird City Active Windows |
|---|---|
| Pacific (PST) | 2-3 AM, 6-7 AM, 8-9 AM, 10-11 AM, 2-3 PM, 4-5 PM, 6-7 PM, 10-11 PM, 12-1 AM |
| Eastern (EST) | 1-2 AM, 3-4 AM, 5-6 AM, 9-10 AM, 11 AM-12 PM, 1-2 PM, 5-6 PM, 7-8 PM, 9-10 PM |
| UK (GMT) | 2-3 AM, 6-7 AM, 8-9 AM, 10-11 AM, 2-3 PM, 4-5 PM, 6-7 PM, 10-11 PM, 12-1 AM |
| Central Europe (CET) | 1-2 AM, 3-4 AM, 7-8 AM, 9-10 AM, 11 AM-12 PM, 3-4 PM, 5-6 PM, 7-8 PM, 11 PM-12 AM |
| Australia (AEDT) | 1-2 AM, 3-4 AM, 5-6 AM, 9-10 AM, 11 AM-12 PM, 1-2 PM, 5-6 PM, 7-8 PM, 9-10 PM |
| New Zealand (NZDT) | 3-4 AM, 5-6 AM, 7-8 AM, 11 AM-12 PM, 1-2 PM, 3-4 PM, 7-8 PM, 9-10 PM, 11 PM-12 AM |
European players now have multiple evening slots to work with, which was the single biggest complaint before the change. UK and CET players in particular benefit from windows in the 5-8 PM range that simply didn't exist under the old rotation.
Embark also confirmed it's reviewing the schedules of other map conditions for similar adjustments, suggesting Bird City isn't the only modifier that may see a frequency bump soon. No word yet on whether this expanded rotation is permanent or temporary.
Why the Original Schedule Drew Backlash
Bird City launched as part of the Headwinds update, ARC Raiders' first major 2026 content drop. The update was free for all players and introduced a solid chunk of new content for the community. The event itself was well-received. The schedule was not.
Three one-hour windows per day, all landing during 9-to-5 hours for European time zones, meant a huge chunk of the playerbase couldn't participate without taking time off work. Players quickly dubbed it the "unemployed event" on Reddit and Discord, a label that gained traction fast and summed up the frustration pretty cleanly.
The backlash wasn't limited to Europe, either. Players across multiple regions pointed out that the rigid spacing of one event every eight hours created dead zones in their schedules too. For a brand-new event that was supposed to be one of the Headwinds update's headline features, the limited access felt like a major oversight.
What Bird City Actually Adds
Bird City is a minor map modifier for the Buried City map, similar in scope to Lush Blooms. It takes over standard matchmaking for Buried City during its active window rather than appearing as a separate node like Night Raid. Players don't need to queue into anything special; they just load into Buried City while Bird City is active and the modifier is already running.
During the event, flocks of birds appear across Buried City and all chimneys gain lootable bird nests. Searching a chimney nest can drop basic crafting resources, nature items like mushrooms and prickly pears, and valuable trinkets. The nests have significantly increased odds of dropping trinkets compared to standard loot sources, making them the main draw of the event.
On top of the nests, trinket spawn rates go up across the whole map, extra Ziplines appear for faster traversal, and there are more birds scattered around the area. Those birds function as sound traps that can give away a player's position, so the extra loot comes with extra danger.
The best spots for nest farming are Town Hall, Santa Maria Houses, Piazza Arbusto, and Plaza Rosa. Each area has several chimneys clustered close together, making for quick and efficient looting runs. These areas are the priority for anyone trying to make the most of the one-hour window.
Rubber Duck Values
Bird City introduced seven unique rubber duck trinkets, all sellable for solid coin payouts. These have quickly become some of the most sought-after items during the event, especially the rarer variants:
| Rubber Duck | Value |
|---|---|
| Rubber Duck | 1,000 coins |
| Alien Duck | 1,000 coins |
| Gentle Duck | 1,000 coins |
| Tropical Duck | 1,000 coins |
| Flashy Duck | 3,000 coins |
| Doodly Duck | 3,000 coins |
| Familiar Duck | 7,000 coins |
The Familiar Duck is the standout at 7,000 coins, making it one of the most profitable trinkets available during the event. Even the common 1,000-coin ducks add up fast when players are hitting multiple chimneys per run. Bird City is one of the most reliable money-making opportunities in ARC Raiders right now, assuming players can get into an active session.
Duplication Exploit Still Plaguing the Game
No patch or store rotation is planned for this week. Embark pointed players toward the next update, scheduled for Tuesday, February 10.
Patch details haven't been announced, but the community has one clear demand: fix the duplication exploit. Embark said it addressed the glitch in last month's update, but players found workarounds almost immediately. The exploit lets players duplicate items like blueprints and the 7,000-coin Familiar Duck, and many argue the blueprint duplication in particular is wrecking the game's economy and meta.
The frustration around the exploit has been building for weeks. Players who grind legitimately feel undercut by those copying rare blueprints, and the influx of duplicated items is throwing off the value of rewards that are supposed to be hard to come by. The community has been vocal about wanting a permanent fix rather than another patch that gets bypassed within days.
On a stranger note, players have been stumbling across dead raiders surrounded by massive piles of Rubber Ducks out in the world. Nobody knows if it's an Easter egg, some kind of ambient storytelling, or the game punishing would-be exploiters. The absurd number of ducks on these corpses (far more than any player could legitimately carry) has fueled speculation that they were attempting the duplication glitch and got killed by the game's anti-cheat systems. Embark hasn't commented on the mystery, which has only made players more curious about what's actually going on.
Shrouded Sky Update Expected Later This Month
The February 10 patch probably won't include major new content, given how recently the Headwinds update dropped. But Embark's 2026 roadmap already has the next big content drop locked in for this month: the Shrouded Sky update.
Shrouded Sky is confirmed to include a new map condition, a new ARC threat, a new player project, a raider deck, a map update, and the game's second Expedition window. That's a packed update, and it signals Embark is committed to a steady release schedule through early 2026.
Community speculation has pointed toward the rumored Toxic Swamp as the new map condition, though nothing official has been confirmed on that front. Toxic Swamp would likely function as another rotating modifier similar to Bird City and Lush Blooms, bringing more variety to the map rotation. No specific release date has been given beyond the February window.
Scheduling Remains a Sticking Point
Embark's response to the backlash was relatively quick, and tripling the daily slots made an immediate difference for players who couldn't access the event before. The studio clearly recognized that locking a new headline feature behind a schedule most working adults couldn't meet was hurting the update's reception.
Still, some players continue to push back on the fundamental design choice of locking events to fixed hourly windows rather than randomizing them or making them continuously available. If the goal is to let all time zones participate, why not remove the time restrictions entirely or introduce some randomization so events don't follow the exact same pattern every day? That's the question players keep raising.
Ossen's promise to "keep revising" suggests Embark sees this as an ongoing process rather than a one-time fix. How the studio handles map condition scheduling going forward will likely stay a hot-button issue as ARC Raiders continues to grow its playerbase and roll out new modifiers like Shrouded Sky.
